Recently, a capsule endoscope including an imaging function and a radio communication function has been proposed in the filed of an endoscope. The capsule endoscope includes a function to travel inside organs (inside of a body cavity) such as a stomach or a small intestine by a peristaltic movement to capture images one by one during an observation period from when the capsule endoscope is swallowed by an examinee as a subject for an observation (examination) until the capsule endoscope is naturally excreted from a body of the examinee.
During the observation period in which the capsule endoscope travels inside the organs, image data captured inside the body cavity by the capsule endoscope is sequentially transmitted to the outside of the subject, through the radio communication function such as a Bluetooth, and stored in a memory provided in an external receiving apparatus. By carrying the receiving apparatus including the radio communication function and a memory function, the examinee can move with less inconvenience during the observation period from when the examinee swallows the capsule endoscope until the capsule endoscope is excreted. After the observation is finished, a doctor or a nurse makes a diagnosis by displaying body cavity images on a display unit such as a display, based on the image data stored in the memory of the receiving apparatus (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
On the other hand, with a conventional capsule endoscope, in the capsule endoscope system, the image data captured by the capsule endoscope is transmitted by radio with a data configuration similar to that for an image transmission in, for example, a national television system committee (NTSC) format. In other words, with the conventional capsule endoscope, as an image data corresponding to one image, synchronous data including a vertical synchronous signal for synchronizing in a vertical direction, and scan line data of each of the scan lines that includes each of horizontal synchronous signals are transmitted in such a state that a so-called horizontal blanking period is provided between two pieces of the scan line data.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-231186 (Page. 3, FIG. 1)